Large square balers are used in the agricultural industry to create large substantially rectangular bales of crop material by moving over crop windrows to collect loose crop material, compress it, and form it into bales that are then tied and ejected. To that end, a baler is typically mechanically coupled with a tractor, and a power take-off (PTO) mechanism transfers power from the tractor's engine to drive the baler's operation. A rotary pick-up at the front of the baler picks up the loose crop material and moves it into a stuffer chamber. Once the stuffer chamber is full, its contents are moved through a stuffer chute into a forming chamber. A reciprocating plunger compresses the crop material in the forming chamber into a growing bale. Once the bale reaches a predetermined length, which could be eight feet, it is tied and ejected through a discharge outlet to fall onto the ground behind the baler. The process then continues to create the next bale.
In some balers, the forming chamber may contain both a finished bale awaiting ejection and an unfinished bale growing adjacent to it. The growth of the unfinished bale provides a force that pushes the finished bale toward the discharge outlet. An ejector system may also be used to eject the finished bale. The ejector system includes ejector teeth that can be manually selected to project into the forming chamber to engage the finished bale. In some balers, there may be a total of sixteen teeth, each spaced eighteen inches apart from the next. The ejector teeth are secured to a carriage that is moveable in both the forward direction (i.e., away from the discharge outlet) and the rearward direction (i.e., toward the discharge outlet) within the forming chamber by a hydraulic cylinder. One or more of the ejector teeth can be manually selected to remain retracted so that they do not engage the unfinished bale. The carriage may move rearwardly and forwardly several times while pulling the finished bale out, wherein the ejector teeth are projected to engage the finished bale when the carriage is moving rearwardly and retracted when the carriage is moving forwardly to reset for another pulling stroke.
When preparing to eject a bale, it is necessary to perform several operations in the proper sequence. The operator must exit the tractor and physically perform these steps, which may include manually placing a bale chute in a full-down position, manually decompressing the forming chamber, manually operating the PTO at sufficient speed to open the forming chamber to eject the bales, manually stopping the PTO, physically examining the forming chamber to determine which ejector teeth are needed to engage the finished bale but not the unfinished bale adjacent to it, manually selecting the corresponding ejector teeth, manually activating the hydraulic cylinder to move the carriage rearwardly, physically examining the discharge outlet to determine whether the bale has been ejected, and if it has not, repeatedly manually activating the hydraulic cylinder to move the carriage forwardly and then rearwardly until it has been ejected.
Requiring operators to exit their tractors to perform these steps can be both inconvenient and inefficient. Furthermore, substantial time and expense are required to train operators to perform this sequence of steps correctly. For example, operators must know and remember which of the tractor's hydraulic auxiliary ports are connected to which of the baler's components, and must activate the ports and the PTO in the correct sequence to correctly position multiple baler components for ejecting the bale. Untrained, inexperienced, or inattentive operators may make mistakes during the procedure, which can result in confusion, reduced efficiency, and possible damage to the tractor, the baler, or the finished bale. For example, an operator might forget the correct sequence of steps or execute the steps slowly, or the operator might select the wrong number of ejector teeth and thereby damage the finished bale or inadvertently eject all or part of the unfinished bale.
This background discussion is intended to provide information related to the present invention which is not necessarily prior art.